The following images were taken with the Panasonic Lumix FZ50. The quality was set 10M Fine mode, Auto White Balance, and Multiple Metering, with all four Picture Adjustment options including Noise Reduction set to Standard. The individual exposure mode,
file sizes, shutter speeds, aperture, ISO and lens focal length are listed for
each image.

The crops are taken from the original files, reproduced at 100% and saved in
Adobe Photoshop CS2 as JPEGs with the default Very High quality preset, while
the resized images were made in Photoshop CS2 and saved with the default High
quality preset. The three crops are typically taken from far left, central and
far right portions of each image.

This shot was taken with the FZ50's lens zoomed-out to its widest equivalent of 35mm. The aperture of f5.6 at this focal length has delivered a large depth-of-field with distant trees and the mountain in focus.

The shot's well exposed and the lens sharp, but even at 100 ISO there's evidence of noise speckles in the crops.

You may also wish to compare this shot with one using the Lumix LX2 from the same position.

This harbour shot was taken with the FZ50 zoomed-in a little to an equivalent of 52mm.

The exposure's fine and the colour pleasing, but viewed at 100% there's again some undesirable processing artefacts visible.

To be fair, these would be invisible on all but the largest prints, but many people enjoy viewing images on-screen at 100% - and as the ISO increases, the artefacts become more obvious. See our outdoor noise page.

The FZ50's massive 420mm equivalent telephoto allowed us to fill the frame with a bird from a comfortable distance. Stabilisation eliminated any camera shake and the flip-out screen meant we could comfortably take the shot from ground level.

These are all the best aspects of the FZ50 working together for a great result, but noise speckles remain visible when viewed at 100%. And again, this was taken at 100 ISO, under bright light, so is as good as it gets.

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